Heterosis studies for yield, its component and grain mould resistance in sorghum genotype

Abstract

The present investigation entitled as “Genetics of Shootfly Resistance, Heterosis and Combining Ability in Sorghum (Sorghum Bicolor (L.) Moench)” was conducted in kharif 2015 at sorghum research station Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani. The second experiment was carried out to estimate the amount of heterosis and heterobeltiosis, the general and specific combining ability for selection of potential parents, crosses and to study important quantitative characters associated with grain mould resistance. In the present study, a set of 15 Parents (7 lines and 8 testers), 56 Hybrids and 3 checks were evaluated to study the inheritance of yield and grain mould resistance traits. Crosses ICSA101 × KR125 (30.28), PMS71A × AKR456 (29.79), PMS74A × AKR456 (28.63), PMS232A × C43 (28.00) and PMS74A × KR125 (24.15) recorded significantly higher heterosis over standard checks for grain yield per plant. Similar trend was the trend in yield contributing characters and germination percentage. Highest significant negative heterobeltiosis over standard check SPH1641 was recorded by cross PMS74A × I26 (-37.79), ICSA101 × KR125 (-36.80) and PMS71A × AKR456 (-35.94) for threshed grade score and grain mould related characters.